
THE H0R8P8 FRIE[^D 



BY 



GEORGE W. HEUSER. 



It is not the appearance or size of this book 
that you pay for but the valuable infor- 
mation which it contains. 



■ r 



THE 



HORSE'S FRIEND 




GEORGE W. HEUSER 

AUTHOR AND WRITER 




PENTECOSTAL PUBLISHING CO. 
LOUISVILLE. KY. 



^n^ 



COPYRIGHT IOI4 

BY 

GEORGE W. HEUSER 



CK 3/ 19/4 

^aA391198 



PREFACE. 

I call this book the Horse's Friend because it 
contains remedies that will cure all evils about his 
feet and limbs. One who does not know cannot 
realize what injury it brings to a horse to have 
such ailments as corns, interfering, crooked feet 
and feet that are too long or too short, etc. Such 
defects bring about numerous other evils un- 
known to most people. The object of this little 
book is to call your attention to such evils and to 
give instructions and directions that if carefully 
followed will cure all such defects. A scientific 
and complete work on horseshoeing, showing the 
only correct method of shoeing a horse, such as 
has never before been given to the world. A book 
for the horse owner as well as the horseshoer. 
A horse owner can purchase this book and by fol- 
lowing directions can have his horse shod accord- 
ingly and thereby get good results. It is worth 
$5.00 a year to any horse owner if he has only 
one horse and that horse has any one of the de- 
fects mentioned in this book. About two-thirds 
of the horses the world over have one or more of 
these defects, and in some cases one horse may 
have them all. It is not the appearance or size 
of this book that you pay for, but the valuable 
information it contains. Buy it and try it, and 
be convinced that nothing as good has ever been 
offered you before. 



The people are wanting all these defects cured, 
and it can be done; they are dodging, and wan- 
dering around from place to place, trying to get 
it done, and they don't get it ; if they did, all these 
things would not be. 

To the horseshoer I would say, purchase one 
of these books and learn therefrom the only cor- 
rect and proper way of shoeing a horse to cure 
the evils spoken of herein. By following the di- 
rections you can speedily arrive at the proper 
way of shoeing a horse. The horse owner who 
will study these directions can go to the horse- 
shoer and tell him how to shoe his horse so as to 
get the results that he has been looking for. 

The writer, George \V. Heuser, is fully able to 
back up all he says in this book, and much more. 
If you will closely follow his directions, you will 
get the results you are looking for, and have 
looked for these many years. 

For your own good and for that of the poor 
dumb animal, I ask you to interest yourself in the 
methods I have placed before you in this book. 
Follow the instructions given herein and these de- 
fects can be cured is guaranteed by the writer. 

George W. Heuser. 
553 1st St., Louisville, Ky. 



GEORGE W. HEUSER'S DISCOVERY 

Full and Complete Discovery on How to Shoe 
Horses Properly. 

The greatest and most valuable discovery the 
v^orld has ever known, has been made by the v^ri- 
ter on horse-shoeing. How to cure corns, inter- 
fering, crooked feet, long feet, short feet, tender 
feet, etc. 

Horse owners and horseshoers know there is 
more trouble about horseshoeing than any one 
thing on earth, and why? Because they don't 
know what to do. As long as horseshoeing has 
been in existence they have not yet seen the way 
herein described in this book, and this new and 
right discovery is now made by the author and 
writer, George W. Heuser, and given to the world. 

If every horseshoer and every horse owner 
knew this discovery there would be no more trou- 
ble with horses' feet or about horseshoeing, but 
the man that owned the horse would take his 
horse to the shop and say, ''Shoe my horse," and 
that would be all they would say; they would 
agree on the same thing exactly. The horse own- 
er v/ould not come into the shop and say, "Here, 
put on a long heel, or a short heel, or a crooked 
heel, or no heel at all," or say, ''cut off one heel 
and leave the other on;" in all these cases the 
owner will suggest this or that and the horseshoer 
will say something or suggest something, and 
then they will exercise their ignorant efforts, hit 



6 Shoeing Accoy^ding to Nature. 

or miss, and when this will not work, they will 
try a new idea that arises in their mind, just as 
absurd, and that is the way they have been doing 
'as long as horseshoeing has been in existence. 
Consequently we have the city and country and 
whole world, full of horses with indescribable de- 
fects, such as they call creel foot, or pigeon toe, 
concave foot and anything but the right name and 
that name is, to-wit : crooked foot or crooked feet, 
and these things would not be if the horses were 
shod right, according to nature. 

Would you not like to know what it is, horse- 
shoers, and horse owners? Yes, I know you 
would. But the horseshoer may say, ''I am a 
horseshoer and you can't teach me anything." 
Horse owners may say, *'I know how a horse 
should be shod, but I can't do it." You are both 
wrong and mistaken. Neither of you ever saw 
a horse shod properly, where they have these de- 
fects, and there is a way to prove it. 

You have already proven that you do not know 
this secret, by the way all horseshoers have been 
doing in the past, and are still continuing to do, 
and I will prove it more plainly than ever, if you 
will follow out the directions in this book. 

Stop cutting off one heel of shoe, and leaving 
the other on. That only makes a rocker. If you 
cut one heel off, cut them both off But you ought 
not cut either of them off where you have a toe 
on a shoe. I know why you do it. You think 
it will stop interfering, or straighten a crooked 



Assisting Nature. 7 

foot, and it does neither, but is only an injury 
instead of a good, and does not stop interfering, 
and still you keep it up, just because you learned 
that v/ay, and don't know anything else, and you 
see it in that way, and you see it entirely and al- 
together wrong. 

Quit this old foolish custom and way, and 
follow out these directions, exactly as I describe 
them in this book, and you will succeed without a 
doubt, and never before, for these directions ex- 
plain the only way on earth to stop a horse from 
interfering and all such defects. Don't shake 
your head and say, *'No," but try it, and keep it 
up for two or three shoeings, and you will find n 
very simple and easy, and will be much surprised 
how good and reasonable it is. 

I also did the same things, as you are doing 
now, and I thought it right also, and fought for 
it, as you do now, before I discovered this new 
and right way, and only way, and when you see 
it in the right way, you will also fight for it, for 
it is the only way to stop all these defects for 
good and cure a horse. 

When you grasp this proper way to shoe a 
horse, you will say, as I say, there is nothing in 
the world to beat it, or equal it. It is a complete, 
finished way, and cannot be improved upon. It 
is a full, tried-out, developed success. It puts up 
a horse exactly according to nature, and assists 
nature, and it keeps the foot natural and straight, 
and makes the horse travel better and right. 



8 Shoeing According to Nature, 

When once seen by a horseshoer, he will never 
shoe a horse any other way. It's as plain as the 
sun that shines, when once seen, simple and harm- 
less, and more beneficial than man's mind can 
grasp, until he sees it; it makes it more easy to 
shoe a horse, for it is the only right way to do it. 

I hope God will open your eyes and under- 
standing to grasp this way, described herein, and 
that you will gladly quit the old fogy and miser- 
able way that does not accomplish anything, but 
only gives the horseshoer worry and trouble to 
find what to do, and can't find it. 

Now, after you have tried this natural way 
out, to the best of your knowledge and under- 
standing, and say it will not work, I, the writer, 
will come to any address and show and prove to 
you that it will work, and if I do not prove it, I 
will pay my own expenses; and if I do, you are 
to pay expenses. But there is no if about it. I 
am fully able to prove it to the satisfaction of any 
man on earth. 

I herewith give explanatory and full direc- 
tions, as follows, to-wit : I will first take crooked 
feet, or pigion toe, as you may call it, because a 
crooked foot causes different bad things about a 
horse's travel. That is what causes interfering 
nine times out of ten. Nine cases out of ten, a 
horse that interferes his foot is more or less 
crooked, and if you will trim the outside of the 
foot, the foot will come straight, and the interfer- 
ing will be stopped. The foot also wants to be 



Assisting Nature. 9 

well shortened, and you can't do it altogether by 
trimming it in the bottom of the foot, but let in 
the clip of the shoe well, at the toe, and the part 
of the foot that extends over on the inside, and a 
little on the outside; then pinch it off with the 
pinchers, then rasp it well up to the shoe. You 
will need to repeat this three or four shoeings, on 
a badly crooked foot, and even oftener if the foot 
is extra bad. Where the foot is not so crooked, 
one or two shoeings is sufficient, and will straight- 
en them. You may say when the feet turn in to- 
ward each other that the inside of the foot is the 
longest. I say it is not, and there is no way for 
you to prove it. You just imagine it is thus. You 
will quit observing it in that way when you see 
the right way, which I have fully explained in 
this book. 

A horse that wears his shoe on the outside 
proves to the biggest ignoramus that ever lived 
that the outside is the longer. And it is, and you 
know it, or at least you ought to know it, for the 
above explanation proves it, and there is another 
way of proving it, and that is to take a straw and 
measure from the top edge of hair of the leg 
down to the edge of the hoof, on each side, and 
you will find out the outside is longer. So when 
you trim the foot, or hoof, cut down the outside 
all it will stand and hardly touch the inside, in a 
bad case, and set the shoe well out at the toe, as 
well as at the heel, and you will get the results 
you have been looking for, perhaps for many 



10 Shoeing According to Nature, 

years. You may say nature can't be forced. What 
is the reason then you are trying to force it in the 
very wrong way? If you follow out the above 
directions you will succeed. This which I refer 
to is not forcing nature, but assisting nature, so 
that the hoof or foot can come straight and right. 
You may say some horses are born with crooked 
feet, or hoofs and are crooked the first time they 
are shod ; yes, that is so ; and you shoe them two 
or three times and you will have them twice ^s 
crooked as they were when you started, so you 
are forcing nature from bad to worse, but if you 
follow the directions contained in this book, in 
such a case, you will have the foot or hoof twice 
as good in two or three shoeings, and have it 
straight and right. In every case you should 
have the shoe good and wide and full at the toe. 
Of course there is a difference. Some toes are 
naturally wider than others; some toes are nar- 
row, and some are pointed. In cases of that kind 
the toe of the shoe should be a little wider than 
the toe of the foot or hoof. The toe of the foot 
will grow to it, as time goes by. Of course you 
ought to use some judgment, according to circum- 
stances, sometimes, but the judgment and under- 
standing of the different things about the foot or 
hoof will come to you as you grow into the knowl- 
edge of it. 

You should study the foot or hoof some also, 
as you go along. Perhaps you have never studied 
the foot or hoof, much ; and if you did you never 



Assisting Nature. 11 

understood it rightly. If you will continue to fol- 
low out all directions in this book, and use a little 
judgment, you will come out all right, and cannot 
miss it. When the toe of the foot or hoof comes 
to a point, like an old fashioned smoothing iron, 
you don't want to narrow or draw up the toe of 
the shoe, right to the toe of the foot or hoof; if 
you do, it will never get the toe of the foot any 
wider. Don't say no, but try and say, yes, yes! 
and get a move on yourself, and go after it, and 
get it; you can do so; it's laid down plainly here 
before you. I say, yes, yes, again; don't try to 
talk me out of it — out of something I know is 
right, and can prove it all along the line. You 
may say, *'I have tried these things and they won't 
work." You have never tried and studied them 
thoroughly, or you would not say this. Perhaps 
you have tried some of these things I write about 
in a luke-warm way, and dropped them, and said 
they would not work. 

I have talked to blacksmiths and horseshoers 
before now and they would say this way I speak 
of is right, and they would get right down and 
pick up the foot of a horse and do the opposite 
thing. I don't write this book to have you do the 
way you have been doing, for that is the wrong 
way. I want you to follow out these directions, 
and go after this most valuable thing to you on 
earth, and after you try hard and keep it up you 
will succeed, and in no other way. 

Now if you cannot see that the side of the foot 



12 Shoeing According to Nature, 

that strikes the ground first, and the most, and 
wears off the shoe the most, is the longest, then I 
will put it before you this way. Then you mean 
to say the inside of the foot that hardly touches 
the ground — you mean to say, cut it up still high- 
er and get the inside still higher up, off the 
ground. Is that logic? It is not common sense, 
and it is not nature to raise the side that hardly 
touches the ground still higher. It is unreasona- 
ble. A boy ten years old ought to know better, 
whether he does or not, and you ought to also, 
but you don't. I don't mean to offend you, or 
make little of you, but I mean it for your good 
and the poor animal's good, and it would be good 
for both of you. 

I hope God will not kill you for these awful 
things you have been doing, for you don't know 
any better, but I wish He would hit you a pretty 
good jolt and wake you up, and tell you to shoe 
horses right. Then maybe you would get your 
thinking cap on, and wonder what it is, that you 
are to do. Just like He did me. He gave me a 
grasp and showed me the right way and I believe 
it is a God-send to me, and it is intended for me 
to put it before the world, and I am going to do 
so, but enough of this at the present. 

I will now take a long foot, where a horse 
wears out his shoe at the heel. First, it proves 
that his foot is too long and that is what makes 
him do it. The foot may be crooked with it also. 
In such a case trim the foot on the outside and 



Assisting Nature, 13 

let the shoe well in at the toe, and both defects 
will come right. Remember it will require more 
than one shoeing in anything like a bad case. 

I will now take short feet or foot, which is 
generally the hind feet, and is caused by different 
things. Sometimes by a horse being graveled or 
by picking up a nail, which makes him stand up 
on his toe, sometimes a period of time, because 
it hurts him and becomes in such a habit of it 
that the leaders in the pastern joint become drawn 
up so that he cannot get the heel down to the 
ground. Of course when he travels he wears the 
shoe altogether at the toe. Such a case is hard 
to^ cure, but timely treatment and good shoeing 
will greatly help and assist such cases, and the 
way to help this kind of a case is to set the shoe 
well forward, just an ordinary shoe with a good, 
heavy toe, and high heels that will assist and 
help him more than anything else. Welding a 
lug of iron on the shoe in front or a 
clip, I suppose you call it, and letting 
it come over the front of the foot, is 
absolutely uncalled for, and no good, but injures 
the foot. The foot will never grow forward 
where they are put on the foot; it can't; the clip 
or lug of iron, holds it back, and the clip drags 
and wears off, and the toe is as short as ever, 
v/here if you take an ordinary shoe and set it 
well forward the foot is free from bondage and 
will grow forward. Of course it is hard for me 
to explain and give every little detail about the 



14 Shoeing According to Nature. 

foot and shoe, but if I had you face to face, I could 
explain it better and easier, and I could show it 
still better. 

Now, I will take into consideration another 
kind of a short foot, and that is, some horses get 
kind of leg worried or tired, or perhaps lazy and 
drag their hind feet a little, and drag the shoe or 
Vv^ear it into at the toe, and wear off a little 
of the toe of the foot or hoof. The next time you 
shoe him, you will set the shoe right back to the 
toe and perhaps let it in a little. Yet, right there 
and then you should set the shoe a little forward, 
and you will stop that right off. If that kind of 
a foot is turned in, trim it on the outside, and set 
the shoe a little forward, and you will cure both 
at once. 

I have seen horses with their hind feet drag- 
ged or worn off very nearly half way back to 
their heels, and I have had that kind to come to 
my shop, and have cured them completely, just 
with an ordinary shoe. I have set the shoe for- 
ward as much as an inch or more at a time, and 
kept that up, and the foot will extend and grow 
gradually forward until it gets its natural length. 

Don't say no, but say yes. I hope that you 
will plead for this, and use every effort and say, 
yes, some day with me. 

Some feet are turned out, and the horse wears 
the shoe off on the inside. In such a case trim off 
the inside the most and set the shoe a little in, 
and it will come straight. If in such a case the 



Assisting Nature, 15 

horse should be interfering, he will stop inter- 
fering; but such cases are rare, and not so plen- 
tiful as those with feet turned in, and are easier 
cured. 

I will now speak of corns, which is something 
a horse would not have if he was shod right. 
Corns come from having the shoes too narrow 
at the heel, or the foot too long, or both. In such 
cases trim the foot ordinary and let it in well at 
the toe ; get the foot as short as possible, and that 
throws the weight more on the toe, and not so 
much on the heel. Make the shoe wide enough, 
so the heel of the shoe will come well out on the 
wall of the foot at the heel, so as to make the wall 
of the foot at the heel rest on the center of the 
iron, and the horse will never have corns, and 
where he already has them this will cure them. 
Treat a closed up heel or contracted heel, as one 
may call it, the same way. Let the wall at the 
heel come on the center of the iron, and the heel 
will spread, just the least bit; a closed heel can't 
be spread much, but a slight bit. In a case of an 
extremely narrow heel I would prefer turning the 
heel of the shoe out a little, a short curve or crook 
right at the very end of the heel of the shoe, a 
little like or similar to a mule shoe. I see horse- 
shoers turning short curves or crooks on nearly 
all horses. It is absolutely uncalled for and un- 
necessary, except in an extremely narrow heel ; in 
no case hollow out, or cup out the foot so much, 
as that is only an injury. You only cut out w^at 



16 Shoeing According to Nature, 

is called the bar or brace of the feet, and it lets 
the foot shrink up and draw together; just trim 
to a gradual slope toward the center of the foot, 
just cupping it enough to keep the iron from rest- 
ing too much on the sole of the foot. 

I will call your attention to crooked feet and 
interfering again, as it may be necessary to give 
more understanding to some people and explain it 
more fully. As I said before about setting the 
shoe well out, you also want to make the shoe 
fuller and rounder on the outside than on the in- 
side, it being full and round on the outside has a 
tendency to pull the foot out, when the horse goes 
to make his step, or helps to hold it out. You 
may say by setting the shoe out like I speak of, 
you can't drive the nails on the inside. Yes, you 
can, when you once understand the hoof or foot 
as you should. I have had cases where I set the 
shoe so as the inside of the hoof or foot extended 
over the shoe as much as a half inch or more, 
that means along toward the toe, and driven the 
nails high and dry, and you can do the same. 
Why, actually, you would have to bend or put out 
of place the ankle to make the foot come straight 
the way you have been doing, having the weight 
all on the outside of the foot. Just study it over 
a little and see if it is not plain, that you would 
have to bend the ankle to make the inside touch 
the ground or street, and the foot would not be 
straight, but the ankle bent, if it could be, but 
that is not possible. 



Assisting Nature, 17 

So, to make the inside of the shoe touch 
the ground or street, you must follow the direc- 
tions in this book, and you will save all the un- 
necessary troubles, and the feet will come 
straight. You must closely follow the directions, 
and vary not from them, and then will the feet 
come right, and no other way. 

That part of the foot that is turned in toward 
the other foot is not the longest, but is only a 
flap or wing, grown over toward the other foot, 
and you must cut off that flap or wing, and stop 
it from growing over toward the other foot, cut- 
ting it off with the pinchers and rasp after the 
shoe is nailed on. 

All these things I speak of here for horses 
will work on mules, and it will also work on any 
kind of a mule or horse, from the commonest plug 
of a mule to the best race horse. 

To give further details, and fuller understand- 
ing, I will give here an explanation on straight 
feet. For instance, should a horse interfere that 
has a straight foot, such a case is harder to cure 
than one with a crooked foot; it's because the 
foot is too long. Trim the foot ordinarily and a 
little more on the outside, than the inside, and 
make the outside of the shoe a little full, and 
round and let it well in at the toe; get the foot 
as short as possible, and the interfering will be 
stopped. In a bad case of interfering of any 
kind, I would prefer a flat shoe. The first shoe- 
ing after that, use any kind of a shoe you wish 



18 Shoeing According to Nature. 

and it will be all right, but follow directions as 
above given. In a case of a horse forging or 
, over-reaching you will weld plates or clips on the 
front part of the shoe, or toe of the shoe, which 
ever you want to call it, and let them run up on 
the front part of the foot, so as to remedy this 
defect, which is unnecessary. When above di- 
rections are followed the feet will come straight, 
and the horse will stop forging or overreaching. 
You may think that I profess to cure many 
things, and may say that I say too much; no, I 
don't, and if you want more, I can give it to you, 
and if you don't I am going to give you more any- 
how, for you need it. I am not through yet. I 
do not profess to have a secret remedy for each 
different ailment, or defect, but shoe a horse ac- 
cording to nature, and assist nature, and that is 
what makes all these cures, and you can do the 
same, if you follow directions. Don't say no, but 
get down and take hold of this great and most 
valuable way, and work for it and strive for it, 
and do the things laid down in this book. If you 
do them you will come to it, or you will do worse 
and worse, that is one thing sure. You have got 
to acknowledge this is the way to shoe a horse 
according to nature, or denounce it, and denounc- 
ing it will not profit you, so get it or die trying, 
for if these poor dumb animals could talk that 
would be as good a proof as you would need, but 
they can't, and you must be merciful to them and 
shoe them right, and this book is gotten to you 



Assisting Nature. 19 

for this purpose, to show you and plead with you 
that you are not doing the right thing in shoeing 
a horse. Another thing you do wrong in 
nearly all cases. You make the heel or calk too 
high, which makes it bad for the horse to travel. 
It pitches his foot forward too much, and puts 
him too much like on stilts, and is unnatural, 
more or less for him to travel. And yet another 
thing you do is to curve the shoe gradually from 
the toe to the heel downward, and that is also 
wrong as that makes another rocker lengthwise 
of the foot. So you have two rockers, one length- 
wise and one sidewise. Now, should the horse 
travel right after you have put him in such a 
rocking position, besides all the other miserable, 
abominable things you do? It's all guess work 
what you do, and guess work has to come to e. 
speedy end with me, and I can now say that I am 
sure of what I do and what can be done. I will 
now finish telling you about curving the shoe from 
the toe to the heel. It should be curved a little 
upward in place of downward, so as to make the 
shoe bind at the toe and heel; then when you 
draw the nails the shoe will draw solid to the 
foot all along, and it's sure solid and not a rocker, 
and the horse has something solid to depend upon 
and help to make him travel right. You may 
say this will pinch or cramp his foot. It will not. 
if you let the wall come on the center of the Iron 
at the heel. I will recall about bending the anlde 
which I spoke of before, which you would have 



20 Shoeing According to Nature. 

to do in order to make the inside of the shoe touch 
the ground or street, and you do bend and spring 
the ankle over toward the other foot or leg every 
step the horse makes, but it flies back again. Now, 
don't you believe such a horse is in terrible mis- 
ery and agony every step he takes? I know he 
is, but he can't tell it, or of course he would. 
Don't you know his ankle is on a strain all the 
time and that he is suffering all the time? Then 
why don't you quit making him stand on the out- 
side of his foot or shoe by trimming up on the 
outside which is the only way on God's earth to 
do it. Horseshoers, will you do the right thing? 
Will you shoe the horses and mules the proper 
way? I plead with you earnestly and sincerely, 
will you come over on the right road of horseshoe- 
ing? I beg you, for pity sake, and for 
the sake of those poor dumb animals that 
are suffering right now, day in and day 
out, on account of lack of knowledge on the 
horseshoer's part, I beg you, to get down to 
business, and do the things which I have laid 
down before you in this book. You can do it. 
It's easy, simple and harmless as anything mind 
can think of, and as beneficial as gold can make 
anything. But I will have to move on. I want 
to call your attention to setting the shoe well out. 
As I have said heretofore, the inside nails will 
be very easy to drive, but the outside ones will 
be the most difficult to drive for a few shoeings 
until you get the foot pretty well spread out and 



Assisting Nature. 21 

straightened, then you can drive them all right. 
I have set the shoe so far out in some cases, so 
that I would have to bend the nail just above the 
point in toward the hoof and right at the point 
bend them out a little more and get hold enough 
to hold the shoe all right. This is only where 
the hull has been broken off. Naturally, when 
you once understand this way of shoeing you will 
become more skilled in driving nails properly. 
If I knew what more to say to make it more clear 
to you or impressive, I would gladly do so, but 
I have already said enough to convince any intel- 
ligent man, horseshoer or horse owner, that when 
the inside of the foot is already the highest for 
a man in such cases, to get it in his head to trim 
it up still higher, there must be something 
wrong and there is. It's the lack of knowledge, 
and you will say so yourself when you once see 
this right, and only way to shoe a horse properly. 
In no case trim the foot so much as the average 
horseshoers do, but when you trim, trim at the 
right place. I have told you where and how, in 
an extremely long foot. Don't try to get it short 
enough by trimming in the bottom of the foot, 
but let the clip in well at the toe, as I said before, 
and that will shorten it quicker and better than 
any other way, and you will have to repeat this 
two or three shoeings before you get it short 
enough. You can't do it all at one time. The 
last thing before setting the shoe on the foot, 
rasp down the edges of the wall a little, not too 



22 Shoeing According to Nature. 

much, so the shoe don't interfere Tvith the sole of 
the foot or press on the sole too much. 

Now I know just how impossible these things 
that I speak of, look to you. That is the reason 
I have said as much as I have. I want to make 
it as urgent and impressive on your minds as I 
can find words to do so, so as to get you to think- 
ing, which I hope it will, as this is a sincere mat- 
ter. Now you can say, think or talk what you 
please, but here it is laid down before you. The 
light, the truth and the way, and it means a great 
relief for those poor animals, horses and mules, 
if you will do these things, and follow these di- 
rections. I beg you once more in behalf of the 
poor animals to open your eyes and quit looking 
at these things wrong, and do this right and only 
way. Now if you want anything stronger than 
this I can give it to you, by coming to your place 
and proving it to you, and I Vv^ill do so at your 
expense. Now, if there is any further informa- 
tion or explanation, you may want, write or call 
at my shop and I will gladly answer all questions 
and answer them correctly. You have perhaps 
heard men talk before now about horses being 
sure-footed. I have. They will say like this: 
"Such and such a horse is sure-footed." Any 
horse would be more sure-footed if he could be. 

How in the name of common sense can a horse 
be sure-footed when he is walking on one side of 
his foot, which throws him in a rocker and wab- 
ble fashion. Such a horse has no certainty where 



Assisting Nature. 23 

it will land. He has got to throw his foot where 
he can and the foot being too long, makes it 
against him being sure-footed ; and in some cases 
they have both the long foot and crooked foot, and 
then you will cut off the inside heel yet and put 
him on a doul^le rocker, and then you will say, 
"Now, go horse and be sure-footed. We have 
put you on good rockers." 0, what a pity that 
you can't see any better than that. I feel sorry 
for you, and still more sorry for those poor ani- 
mals, as they can't help themselves, but have to 
take what you give them. If the poor animals 
could only talk they would tell a pitiful story. 
They would say, "0! I'm in misery; can't you 
do something for me?" Now please wake up, 
open your eyes and look around ; look in any di- 
rection and you will see nothing that will beat 
or equal what I have herein desccribed. If these 
directions are read and carefully followed there 
will be more good accomplished in one year for 
horses and mules than the world has ever accom- 
plished in all the years past. Say, horseshoers 
and horse owners, there is more lameness on ac- 
count of bad shoeing than any other cause, and if 
the horses and mules were shod this right and 
only way, there would be less lameness in horses 
and mules throughout the world, and it is good for 
the whole body of a horse as it assists his nature 
in every way. 

Now a few words to race-horse men. You al- 
so do a few more miserable, outrageous, abomi- 



24 Shoeing According to Nature, 

nable things to your horses in the way of shoe- 
ing than the ordinary horse shoer and horse owner 
considering the speed and time your horses have 
to make. You too, as the average horseshoers 
and horse owners, do and have done some of the 
most foolish, outrageous guess work that you 
can think of, and think and guesswork is all there 
is to it, and you don't know the right way. You 
guess, and you wonder and ponder and try every- 
thing but the right thing. You go all around the 
right way and leave it undone. You do like the 
ordinary horseshoers and horse owners do, and 
have things done that there is nothing in, such 
as cutting off the inside heel, shaping the foot 
wrong and shaping the shoe wrong. In nearly 
all cases you make the inside heel some shorter 
than the outside — that is wrong — make both heels 
the same length, as near as possible, and quit 
turning that outside heel out. You think that 
throws his feet or legs apart but it does not It 
only throws them together if anything, and makes 
it unnatural and against him in different ways. 
I have seen men turn that outside heel out as 
much as an inch and turn it almost square, and 
others not quite so much, and others not at all. 
Now they can't all be right. Then I have seen 
some let the heel of the shoe extend back over the 
heel of the foot as much as an inch. They claim 
that this gives the horse spring heel and more 
speed. That is entirely wrong and nothing but 
imagination and another guesswork problem. The 



Assisting Nature. 25 

spring and speed have naturally got to be in the 
horse, in his limbs and nerves, and it is, that is, 
when he is shod right. Then nature can work its 
way through him. Why, there are lots of good 
speed and racehorses, but when they are shod 
against nature how are they going to do their 
best? Many a good racehorse's best is not known 
because he is not shod right. 

Now another thing some of you do. You make 
roller motion shoes and knee action shoes. I don't 
know what they are, neither do you, nor any 
one else. There is no such thing and no place for 
them. They are no good whatever. The motion 
and action have naturally got to be in the horse. 
The right kind of shoeing is all that will make 
him have the right knee action and motion, and 
where the roller part comes in at I don't know, 
neither do you. It's just some more humbug, 
that's all, and there can be nothing proven by it. 

Well, I will have to move along. I could say lots 
more in regard to the miserable things you do 
but time and space will not allow it. I can take 
a racehorse and shoe him and make him gain in 
speed anywhere, from 3 to 5 seconds in a mile 
heat, and you can too, if you just follow these 
directions, that is, where your horse has any of 
these defects. Of course race horses naturally 
have as many defects in their feet as the general 
work horse. I want to ask you a question. When 
the outside of the foot strikes the ground first 
which side is the longest or which side ought to be 



26 Shoeing According to Nature. 

trimmed the most to make the inside come down 
flat on the ground? You can say nothing, only 
that the side that touches the ground first and 
most is the longest and should be trimmed most 
if you have any horseshoeing judgment about you 
at all. If the horse's foot is crooked, pigeontoed 
or turned in at the toe toward the opposite foot 
it proves that his foot is unnatural and not right, 
and he travels on one side of his foot, which 
throws him in a wabble or rocker fashion or 
shape. How can such a horse be as sure-footed 
as he would be if he could throv\^ his foot down 
flat and level. He can't be sure-footed and you 
know it, if he can't come dov/n flat and level with 
his feet. If you know any other v/ay to make him 
put his foot down flat than to trim the side that 
comes on the ground flrst and most, I want to 
hear from you and see you prove it. You can't 
do it to save your life. You have tried it long 
enough. Now do the right thing and you will 
succeed and never before. That is, where the foot 
is turned in and crooked and v/ears off the shoe 
on the outside trim the outside of the foot the 
most, if the foot should be too long with the crook- 
ed foot shorten it by trimming it ordinary in the 
bottom, let in at the toe enough to make the foot 
the right length, set the shoe well out at the toe, 
making it a little more full and more round on 
the outside than on the inside as that has a 
tendency of pulling or holding the foot out when 
the horse goes to make a step. You will find that 



Assisting Nature. 27 

the foot will grow outward as time passes, not 
downward, but outward, and the foot will spread 
and you will get a nice, full, round, straight foot 
on your horse and he picks it up right and puts it 
down right — straight, level and flat — and you get 
all out of him there is in him, and in no other 
way. A horse can't do his best when one side of 
his foot is too long. Now do these things that I 
have told you and you will get the results you 
have long been looking for. Go after it and do 
it, don't be afraid of it hurting the horse or in- 
juring him or his foot. There is no such thing 
as hurting him, if these things are done which 
I speak of, but it benefits him in every way, shape 
and form. The way you are doing and have been 
doing is injurious and harmful to a horse and is 
everything that is wrong. Study over it a little 
and see if you can't figure it out that when a horse 
is standing or traveling on one side of his foot 
and his ankle being bent and sprung and on a 
strain every breath he draws and every step he 
makes, see if you can't figure it out that such a 
horse is in misery and unnatural. Yes, he is 
bound to be so. Put him flat on his feet, then he 
will travel easy, active, and with more vigor be- 
cause it makes him feel better in every way. 

Now I have told you how to do these things, so 
don't hesitate a moment but go and do it. The 
shoe should not extend back over the heel, but 
very little, if any, a little doesn't matter, and even 
as much as a half an inch wouldn't matter in 



28 Shoeing According to Nature, 

some cases, but it does not give him any spring, 
as I said before, as the spring and speed have got 
to be in his limbs and nerves and it is, when his 
nature is assisted by shoeing the horse right and 
proper. Now do it and don't make an excuse and 
be wandering around trying and guessing. You 
have been doing that long enough. I bought a 
book a while back that a veterinary wrote only 
for mere curiosity. I knew before I bought it 
there was nothing to be learned in it about horse- 
shoeing but it was really worse than nothing. 
Anyway, he gave his opinion and instructions 
which he thought were right, and it's all guess- 
work, just like the average horseshoer and horse 
owner. He said in the very last part of his book, 
these are the only means by which he believed the 
art of farriery can be improved in this country. 
When he says he believes it goes to show that he 
is just guessing at things and don't know for a 
fact if the things he speaks of are right or not. 
He uses a lot of big words and jawbreakers that 
one half the blacksmiths, horseshoers and horse 
owners can't understand and didn't say anything 
after all, and can't prove a thing, but I can say 
with a clear conscience and understanding that I 
do know and can prove every word I say and I 
will come to your place and prove it to you or any 
one. I don't care who you are. I will come at 
your expense. I have told you above how this 
veterinary also spoke of much lameness being 
caused by bad shoeing, but he failed to give the 



Assisting Nature, 29 

remedy that would cure this kind of lameness or 
prevent it. This is the remedy which I speak of 
when I say a horse should be shod according to 
nature. It assists nature and consequently there 
is much less lameness. If the horseshoers would 
all understand this way of shoeing and the horse 
owners would let them alone there would be 75 
per cent, less lameness among horses the world 
over. Of course there is the horseshoer who 
knows something and the horse owner who 
knows something, and the coachman who knows 
something too, and then comes the veterinary, and 
he knows more than all of them put together, 
and he never picked up a horse's foot in his life 
to put on a shoe. And all of you together can't 
straighten a crooked foot or cure interfering or 
a bad case of corns or a foot that is too long or 
two short, and prevent the horses and mules from 
having all these defects unless you follow these 
directions. 

Now if you should write me to come to your 
place to cure these defects I have written about, 
don't come to me with a deformed or crippled 
foot remember. I have seen horses and mules 
with their feet actually so crooked that the bot- 
tom of the foot was almost on top. They walked 
on the side of their foot so badly that they almost 
walked on the hair, and by walking that way so 
long the ankle became crooked. Such a case is a 
cripple and cannot be cured, but even such cases 
can be assisted and helped. Just such feet are 



30 Shoeing According to Nature. 

caused by improper shoeing. That is what a man 
does by trimming up on the inside a little more 
each time he shoes a horse until he makes a crip- 
ple of him. But there are hundreds and thou- 
sands of cases that are not that bad that can be 
cured where if shod wrong will also make crip- 
ples of them in course of time. There is another 
kind of crippled foot or deformed foot, and that 
is where a horse walks extremely bad on his heel 
and throws his toe up when he steps. Such a 
case cannot be entirely cured, but can also be 
helped by trimming ordinary in the bottom and 
letting in well at the toe making the foot as short 
as possible and the shoe plenty large enough so 
as to make it long enough to extend back well 
over the heel making the heels of the shoe as 
heavy as possible that will help such feet. The 
veterinary's book I read also touched up a little 
on interfering, gave his ideas and guesswork. He 
said the fault laid in the horse and in the way he 
traveled, and that it could not be cured by shoeing 
alone. Yes, that is true, but what makes him 
travel wrong and awkward he failed to tell. I 
will tell you. It's that miserable, outrageous, 
awkward wrong way the horses are being shod, 
that's what it is. You go to work and shape the 
foot wrong, then shape the shoe wrong, and cut 
off one heel and make the heels too high, and put 
a horse in such a position and then blame him for 
not traveling right or for cutting his legs. 

I will come and show you that when a horse is 



Assisting Nature, 31 

shod wrong he will travel wrong and when he is 
shod right he will travel right. I have told you 
what to do, so don't keep on doing or trying 
something else. There is nothing else to do ex- 
cept what I told you. This man that I read after 
spoke of different makes of shoes, and condemned 
some of the patterns very much and recommend- 
ed a new kind of shoe. That's the trouble, there 
have been so many sorts and kinds of shoes recom- 
mended and the filing and shaping of them until 
the horses feet have got in the shape they are. It 
shows again that he is wondering and guessing 
and thinking there ought to be still another kind 
of shoe recommended. I will tell you what kind 
of a shoe is good. Any kind or pattern is all 
right. What we want now are men that know 
how to put them on right. Our factory shoes 
are made so good and perfect in shape that they 
can't be beat. I don't care if it's a home-made 
shoe the factory shoes are all good enough if they 
were only put on right. I have seen horseshoers 
take these nice, perfect shoes out of a keg and call 
themselves fitting them and they slam, bang, 
hammer and knock them around over the anvil 
from one end to the other a dozen times or more 
and actually when they got through with them 
they had a worse shape than when they started 
on them. It shows again that these guessers 
think more or less that it's in the shoe. They 
want to knock it out of the shoe and anvil. But 
the secret lies in the foot mostly, and you can't 



32 Shoeing According to Nature, 

knock it out of the shoe or anvil. I don't care 
how much you hammer, jingle, ring, and slam 
around on the anvil it's not there, it's in the foot 
where the main trouble is, and when you once un- 
derstand this way of shoeing that I speak of, it 
requires but little hammering to fit a shoe or pre- 
pare it for the foot. You may say the way I spoke 
of where I said about setting the shoe out so far 
as to make the inside of the hoof extend over the 
shoe as much as a half inch, then taking it off 
with the pinchers and rasp you may say that is 
fitting the foot to the shoe, but it is not, it is mak- 
ing the shoe and foot meet so as to get them both 
the right shape, and what you take off on the in- 
side you gain on the outside by the foot growing 
outward. As time passes it grows outward and 
not downward and the foot will spread and you 
get a nice, full, round, straight foot on the horse, 
and when he puts it down he puts it down flat and 
level, and when he goes to travel he can go some 
and do it with ease and comfort. But when a 
horse is shod the way the average horseshoer 
shoes them he is in misery and dreads every step 
he makes. He don't know whether he is going to 
stand or fall, and if he stands it's a wonder and 
he has got to strain every nerve in him to do so. 
If he could talk he would tell you so. But enough, 
I am going to stop. If you want to know anything 
else write me. If you want the opportunity of 
seeing these things done I will show you at your 
expense, as I am fully able to do so. 



'Mi^: 




TESTIMONIALS. 



Louisville, Ky., Sept, i6, 1914. 
This is to certify, that, during the years, when I owned 
and drove horses, I repeatedly called upon Blacksmith, 
George 'W. Heuser, when my horses were in trouble, on 
account of foot soreness or foot defects. Invariably, 
Heuser was able, in very short space of time, to correct 
these troubles. I considered him a veritable wizard, as a 
blacksmith, and never knew him to fail in the correction of 
so-called "interfering." Respectfully submitted, 

Leon L. Solomon. 

Louisville, Ky., Sept. 18, 1914. 
To Whom It May Concern: 

I had a sorrel horse that interfered very badly. I tried 
several shoers in my neighborhood and none could do any- 
thing with him, so I sent him to Geo. W. Heuser, and he 
remedied the fault. Yours, W. L. Drake. 

608 W. Jefiferson St., Louisville, Ky. 

Louisville, Ky., Oct. 9, 1914. 
My horse had crooked feet, wore off his shoes on one 
side, and interfered and wore off his hind shoes and feet 
very badly at the toe. Geo. W. Heuser, the writer of this 
book, cured him of all these defects. 

Henry Sandfort. 
T.433 Highland Ave., Louisville, Ky. 

Louisville, Ky., Sept. 18, 1914. 
Several years ago I was driving a horse that interfered 
badly. George Heuser shod him for some months, and 
while he was wearing the shoes Mr. Heuser put on, the 
interfering stopped. W. Ed. Grant, M. D. 

Louisville, Ky., Sept. 19, 1.914. 
At one time I had a horse that cut hilnself badly. Sev- 
eral horseshoers tried to remedy the matter and failed. 
\ , 1 ., ,,. i-jQ^^,gygj.^ ^g j^g wore the shoes that George 
aced op him he had no trouble. 

^ J. M. Ray. 



